For the last few thousand years, wars have been fought with weapons.
For long stretches of time, they have been fought with the same, or similar,
weapons. For example, flintlock smoothbore muskets were the basic infantry
weapons for more than a century. When, in the early 19th century, they were
replaced by percussion smoothbore muskets, soldiers got a more reliable
weapon, but they didn’t have to change their tactics. A little later, they were
given percussion rifled muskets. The musket looked almost the same. It had a
percussion lock, and it was a muzzle-loader. About the only difference was the
rifling grooves in the barrel. Generals didn’t see why they should change their
tactics. That’s why the American Civil War is the bloodiest war in our history.
Most of the weapons that change warfare eventually become obsolete. The
weapons that replace them may further change warfare, or they may not. The
muzzle-loading rifle was quickly replaced by the breech-loading rifle, and the
breech-loading single-shot by the breech-loading repeater. The repeater let troops
fire faster. The muzzle-loading rifle had taught infantry the need to disperse
and take cover. The breech-loader made firing from cover much easier, which
meant that infantry opposing it had to move faster and in smaller groups. That
was a substantial change. When the repeating rifle replaced the single-shot
breech-loader, soldiers could still fire from cover, but they fired much faster.
That should have required infantry opposing them to move faster and in smaller
groups. Troops in the Second Boer War and the Russo-Japanese War learned
that the hard way, but most European generals at the beginning of World War I
hadn’t even learned the lessons of the American Civil War. But then the machine
gun appeared as a major weapon. In World War I, Hiram Maxim’s brainchild
demonstrated that tactics needed a drastic revision. The machine gun is still with
us, but thanks to the tank it no longer owns the battlefield. The tank and its aerial
partner, the dive bomber, took over ownership of battlefields early in World War
II, but the “blitzkrieg” they created was quickly countered by other new weapons
such as antitank land mines and shaped-charge rockets and artillery shells.
...

For the last few thousand years, wars have been fought with weapons.
For long stretches of time, they have been fought with the same, or similar,
weapons. For example, flintlock smoothbore muskets were the basic infantry
weapons for more than a century. When, in the early 19th century, they were
replaced by percussion smoothbore muskets, soldiers got a more reliable
weapon, but they didn’t have to change their tactics. A little later, they were
given percussion rifled muskets. The musket looked almost the same. It had a
percussion lock, and it was a muzzle-loader. About the only difference was the
rifling grooves in the barrel. Generals didn’t see why they should change their
tactics. That’s why the American Civil War is the bloodiest war in our history.
Most of the weapons that change warfare eventually become obsolete. The
weapons that replace them may further change warfare, or they may not. The
muzzle-loading rifle was quickly replaced by the breech-loading rifle, and the
breech-loading single-shot by the breech-loading repeater. The repeater let troops
fire faster. The muzzle-loading rifle had taught infantry the need to disperse
and take cover. The breech-loader made firing from cover much easier, which
meant that infantry opposing it had to move faster and in smaller groups. That
was a substantial change. When the repeating rifle replaced the single-shot
breech-loader, soldiers could still fire from cover, but they fired much faster.
That should have required infantry opposing them to move faster and in smaller
groups. Troops in the Second Boer War and the Russo-Japanese War learned
that the hard way, but most European generals at the beginning of World War I
hadn’t even learned the lessons of the American Civil War. But then the machine
gun appeared as a major weapon. In World War I, Hiram Maxim’s brainchild
demonstrated that tactics needed a drastic revision. The machine gun is still with
us, but thanks to the tank it no longer owns the battlefield. The tank and its aerial
partner, the dive bomber, took over ownership of battlefields early in World War
II, but the “blitzkrieg” they created was quickly countered by other new weapons
such as antitank land mines and shaped-charge rockets and artillery shells.
...